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Permanently deleting a photo in an album from the entire library.

Before I had Big Sur installed on my Mac, I could delete a photo from the Library by right clicking on a photo in an album and selecting 'delete 1 photo', rather than 'delete from album'. (I found this great for preventing a build-up of multiple copies in the Library.) With Big Sur installed, this option doesn't come up when I right click. So, with Big Sur, how do I delete a photo altogether from within an album?


MacBook, macOS 11.2

Posted on Mar 14, 2021 2:51 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Mar 17, 2021 2:33 AM

Susan, what has happened is, that the upgrade to Big Sur has removed the command "Delete Photos" from all menus, when you are viewing photos in al album. This is an inconvenient change, but seems to be intentional. Only "Remove from Album" remains. Tony's tip with holding down the command key is working, because holding down ⌘ is changing the menus and adding the hidden "Delete Photo" back to the drop down menu and the contextual menu.


If you use the keyboard shortcut command-delete ⌘⌫ to delete a photo, it will work in any place you are viewing the photos. I am usually simply pressing ⌘⌫ together to delete a photo instead of bothering to bring up the menus. Then I do not have to think about whether I am viewing a photo in an album, a smart album, or in Photos.


3 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Mar 17, 2021 2:33 AM in response to susanfromvernon

Susan, what has happened is, that the upgrade to Big Sur has removed the command "Delete Photos" from all menus, when you are viewing photos in al album. This is an inconvenient change, but seems to be intentional. Only "Remove from Album" remains. Tony's tip with holding down the command key is working, because holding down ⌘ is changing the menus and adding the hidden "Delete Photo" back to the drop down menu and the contextual menu.


If you use the keyboard shortcut command-delete ⌘⌫ to delete a photo, it will work in any place you are viewing the photos. I am usually simply pressing ⌘⌫ together to delete a photo instead of bothering to bring up the menus. Then I do not have to think about whether I am viewing a photo in an album, a smart album, or in Photos.


Permanently deleting a photo in an album from the entire library.

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